All that is left to be said from my crazy initiative of “raise $20k in a week for Leukaemia Foundation” is thank you.

I didn’t manage to raise $20k in a week, it’s true. But the team did raise a whopping $6,750!! with some money still in the “promised but not yet banked” category I reckon all up we’ll hit the $7k mark. Which is not a bad result for a week’s effort – so thanks for all your support.

Of course, everyone on the team has thanked their sponsors individually, as has the Leukaemia Foundation. But my appeals have been so public, it seems only right that my gratitude is public too. For privacy reasons, I can’t see the sponsors of other members of the team, but in our shave video, I have called out those who sponsored myself, Charis and Amanzi. Enjoy:

Over the week-end Amanzi and Charis joined the Virtual Shave team as well. They didn’t shave, as mentioned in the previous post, but coloured their hair instead. So it was only fair to join them to the Intro Video.

The girls have both all but made their targets of $250 and currently I’m a mere $68 away from my target of $2,000.

So thank you to everyone for your generous giving. If it’s slipped your mind, or you just haven’t got around to it yet, it’s not too late.

Well we had “The Big Shave” yesterday, and whilst I’m still collating all of the photos and editing the video(s) for everyone, I did throw this quick video together to introduce (most of) the team…

As you can probably tell from the brief snippets, the whole event in the office canteen, was a lot of fun. So much so that we had 4 “ring ins”

• John Kaleski – who joined at the request of his team. They promised to raise over $500 for him
• Paul Murray – who just wondered in and signed up (awesome) – and then another two -
• Boris…..
• ?????

I think these last two were influenced by “The Baldernator” and it all happened so quickly I didn’t get their details.

So, people are still joining and sponsoring the team, and you can do so up until Sunday midnight, so don’t be shy.

Thanks so much

I do need to give a special shout out to a couple of organisations, and people:

• Leopard Systems – who sponsored $1000 for Rick’s hair (you can see from the video why)
• Motorola – who sponsored in excess of $250 for the same
• Andre Bergman – who sponsored me $250

But whether you joined and went bald, gave $1000 or $2 at the coffee shop, I want to call you out and say thank you so much. As a team we appreciate your support of us, and more importantly, for this great cause.

But wait there’s more...

This adternoon Charis (currently on $155) and Amanzi (currently on $115) will both be colouring their hair. So there’s still time to sign up, and plenty of time to help us reach our (admittedly ambitious) target. So if you haven’t yet, please do give generously, head over to http://tinyurl.com/VirtualShave and this will redirect you to our World’s Greatest Shave Team page.

Amanzi cooked tonight – a Pad Thai – which was scrumptious. This was followed by jelly made by Charis. You ask why I share such inanities on the blog? Well it was my last supper! My last meal prior to shaving my hair to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation in tomorrow’s World’s Greatest Shave!!

I quizzed the family on their thoughts, and was surprised

Two new recruits. Who’d have thought? If you don’t want to sponsor me, please do sponsor the girls.

When you decide upon a course of action, I believe it’s best to put 100% into it. So every part of our shave effort should be just right. The environment, the equipment, the people. Which is why we’ve recruited the best shaver we know this side of the Nullabor…

…the “Baldernator”

Also, since this morning, we’ve had a couple more sponsors:

• Darryl L
• Kean M (yep – Kean sponsored twice)

Thank You

Has agreed to part with his shoulder length locks. He’s put his money where his mouth is and for the first time will take the plunge to bare his noggin for a good cause. Nay. A Great cause!

Fan of the Smackdown? Fan of Rick? Wanna see him bald? Help us by being the first to donate towards his $1000.

Also, I’d like to shout out my good friends:

• David B, Melbourne, Vic. Australia
• Phil W, Carlingford, NSW, Australia
• Lucy L, West Pennant Hills, NSW, Australia
• Karen Seargeant, Wentworthville, NSW, Australia

For being the first 4 people to sponsor the team. We’re at just over $200, so 1% of the way there. W00t. Thanks.

Need to mention that the Team is now 4 strong. Besides Rick, both:

• Andrew Parsons, Central Coast, NSW, Australia
• Aaron Saikovski, No idea, NSW, Australia

Have joined the team!!

….Or the way the world views you.

We’ve all heard it, and know it to be true:

“Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.”

And yet we all continue do the same thing again, and again. I think partly that’s because we don’t tie the intangible results to the repeat of our tangible actions. E.g. the tangible result of driving the same route to work every morning is getting there on time. But the intangible result is to become slowly bored over time, or to constantly arrive at work frustrated (with traffic). We know we’re bored, we just don’t tie it to the drive to work in the morning.

So the only way to get a different result is to change what we do. And everything is up for grabs. Maybe you “don’t” give to charity, or you only give a certain amount, or just to certain charities. Lord knows, there’s enough out there. Well, feel free to change that.

Maybe you use certain ‘product’ in your hair. Well, feel free to change that.

Maybe you feel that a huge change (like e.g. shaving or colouring your hair) will make people view you as a fanatic, an odd ball, somehow ‘less professional’ – yep, our concern for other’s perceptions is a huge driver in what we do.

So my challenge for tonight is to “Change the way you view the world, or maybe just the way the world views you.” Be brave and Shave Come and join the Virtual Shave Team You can do it from wherever you are in the world. Just:

• Commit to shaving or colouring your hair this week-end
• Join our team online
• Raise some sponsors

And if shaving your head is, well, a tad too much of a change – please sponsor us – any amount will do.

• Sponsor the team online
• Pay it forward – ask just 3 people to sponsor us as well

As a long time consultant and architect, I've often been in discussion which went along the line of:

"Let's give the scoping (read: envisioning, designing, planning & I know these are all different artefacts) to our prospective client for free."

My usual response is that giving away something that has real value sets a dangerous precedent at best: From now on the client will expect this behaviour; and, is counter-productive at worst. Certainly when architecting a complex information system, senior decision makers need to be part of the process to arbitrate conflict, and own consensus. If this value adding activity is not charged for, chances are the very people you need in the workshop won't see the value in it.

I found a very simple, but great example of this principle. At work we're giving away apples for free for an internal survey. We all know that apples, besides tasty and juicy, are good for you.

Note the bottom left of the picture. Not one, but two boxes of "Chocolate for Charity" totally empty. Yes, you could argue that chocolate tastes nicer (most probably would). Also this was for Charity (The old, "I'll take a hit for the team" motive).

But my point remains. People still paid $2 for each piece of chocolate, despite there being wonderful, juicy, sweet, healthy apples, for free!

If what you have for your clients adds value to them, and you need their buy-in, charge them for your service. By all means look at your funding model, discount if you must,  but charge for your value.

Clients won't value your work without it.

R42

This evening I had the opportunity to meet the members of the Sydney .NET Usergroup, and the Brisbane Infrastructure Group. The first was through a happy misunderstanding, and I stepped in at the last minute to host the .NET Usergroup. This group has been run by Adam Cogan for (much) more than the last decade, and this is a great group of enthusiasts who love all things .NET. I may've even managed to convince a couple of them to come along to the Sydney Windows Mobile Usergroup. I know our Mobility MVP James McCutcheon is always keen to have more developers talking mobility. But I digress.

For the same evening, however, Andrew Dugdell (aka Dugie) had invited me to introduce myself and talk about the Wave Launch at the Brisbane Infrastructure Group's Christmas Wrap-up Meeting. Unfortunately I couldn't get away from my NSW commitments, so we hatched a plan. A geeky, techie plan that included a Microsoft Roundtable Camera, Live Meeting, my broadband connection, laptop, and webcam.

I do love technology, especially tech that's this cool. Unfortunately I missed Dugie (re)building his Arcade machine (driving home from the office) not to mention the Pizza. But I did get to meet the ITPro's from BIG, and dazzle (or is that blind) them with one of my trend-setting waistcoats.

I do love technology and connecting with people, and already am loving this gig.

R42